How airplanes counteract St. Elmo’s fire during thunderstorms
On the ground, windy conditions strengthen these electrical flashes, but new experiments tell a different story for flying objects.
Data systems that learn to be better
Storage tool developed at MIT CSAIL adapts to what its datasets’ users want to search.
3 Questions: Asegun Henry on five “grand thermal challenges” to stem the tide of global warming
“Our mission here is to save humanity from extinction due to climate change,” says MIT professor.
A new tool for modeling the human gut microbiome
Bacteria linked to Crohn’s disease are difficult to grow in the lab, but MIT engineers have found a way.
Key brain region was “recycled” as humans developed the ability to read
Part of the visual cortex dedicated to recognizing objects appears predisposed to identifying words and letters, a study finds.
New US postage stamp highlights MIT research
For the robotics category in a new series celebrating innovation, the USPS chose the bionic prosthesis designed and built by the Media Lab's Biomechatronics group.
An automated health care system that understands when to step in
Machine learning system from MIT CSAIL can look at chest X-rays to diagnose pneumonia — and also knows when to defer to a radiologist.
Q&A: Peter Fisher discusses JASON report on reopening university laboratories
MIT physicist led government-backed effort to study the challenges and solutions surrounding campus lab work.
Rapid antibody development yields possible treatment for yellow fever
The experimental drug has shown promise in early-stage clinical trials conducted in Singapore.
Bringing RNA into genomics
ENCODE consortium identifies RNA sequences that are involved in regulating gene expression.
“Giant atoms” enable quantum processing and communication in one
Researchers devise an on-off system that allows high-fidelity operations and interconnection between processors.
Algorithm finds hidden connections between paintings at the Met
A team from MIT helped create an image retrieval system to find the closest matches of paintings from different artists and cultures.
Study: A plunge in incoming sunlight may have triggered “Snowball Earths”
Findings also suggest exoplanets lying within habitable zones may be susceptible to ice ages.
Study sheds light on the evolution of the earliest dinosaurs
Geological evidence suggests the known dinosaur groups diverged early on, supporting the traditional dinosaur family tree.
Looking into the black box
Recent advances give theoretical insight into why deep learning networks are successful.